Cinque Terre

On Wednesday we split from the group that was headed back to Riva and 5 of us (Me, Kate, Kelly, Aubrey and Cloey) took a train to Cinque Terre. It is 5 towns built into the hillside of the Italian Riviera that you can hike between. We stayed in Manarola and it was absolutely beautiful! The trip there was not long at all and we got there around 3. We checked into our hostel (which we quickly dubbed the "rules hostel" since we were allotted only one 5 min shower token and their was a curfew with lights out at 12pm haha) We got lunch down by the water and then spent the evening drinking wine on the rocks and watching the sunset!

Thursday morning we woke up early since it was our only full day in Cinque and set our to hike all 5 cities, a projected 4 hours journey. We took the train to the first town, Riomaggiore, and then got on the path that led us through all 5. It was really amazing and although the hike was harder than I expected, it was definitely worth it! We hiked towards the beach (in the last town) so we had some good incentive to keep it moving. We got to the beach around 1 and layed out/played in the freezing cold water until we ate dinner around 6. We trained back to our town and after some gellato fell asleep really early.

We left around 10 Friday morning and got back to Riva mid afternoon. Since our classes are coming to an end, we have a lot of work due these next two weeks so it was nice to have the weekend to get a head start and relax from our 11 days of traveling. This weekend I am supposed to go to Dublin to visit Lauren Dillon, a friend of mine from VT, BUT if this stupid volcano doesn't stop, I wont be going :-( SO keep your fingers crossed for me!